Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

No, Sarah Palin Will Not Run in 2016

The Inquisitor speculates that Sarah Palin may be laying the groundwork to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. The evidence is pretty thin and quite similar to what sparked identical speculation in 2008, which I said at the time was nonsense.

After a long absence from the political arena, Palin appears to be strategically increasing her appearances and speeches while also taking solid aim at President Obama. This has led many political experts to conclude that she is aiming to enter the 2016 presidential race, or at least is trying to test the waters for a potential run.

The rumors kicked up a bit this week when a spokesman for the Rev. Billy Graham announced that Sarah Palin will be a guest for the reverend’s 95th birthday. Graham still carries great political sway, so much in fact that Mitt Romney carved out time to meet with Graham in the final days of the 2012 presidential race in the hopes of earning a public endorsement and assuring conservative voters…

Sarah Palin has also taken her political tour to Iowa, one of the most important states for Republican hopefuls. On November 9 Palin is slated to speak at the annual banquet for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, an important conservative and evangelical group.

After spending a long stretch away from the spotlight, Palin is also ramping up her political attacks on President Obama in what could be the groundwork for her 2016 platform.

Okay people, repeat after me: Making public appearances and saying political things is not evidence that Sarah Palin is going to run for president. She’s been doing those things for the last 5 years. She is not going to run for president for one very obvious reason: Running for president is work. Hard work. Like 18+ hour days for months on end with very few breaks. Sarah Palin is as lazy as an old hound dog. She does not want to have to work, she wants to live a lavish lifestyle with very little effort. She wants to be rich and famous, not politically relevant.

Which is exactly why she will go around making speeches (at a nice fee) in Iowa, giving the occasional wink (starbursts are nice), and otherwise trying to fool people into thinking that she may run for President so she keeps her name in the media and, most importantly, keeps the gravy train rolling.

If it sez, “Inquisitor” and it’s not about Tomas de Torquemada and the his merry band of Dominican Fryers (and peelers and stretchers, and gougers and drawers) applying their minds–and the thumbscrews) to the spread of JESUS’ love, then it’s prolly not a great read.

I notice that they also did an in depth piece on whether Kate Hudson COULD afford those designer rags that she borrows from the couture houses for the awards shows that she attends. Strange as it may seem I find the latter story to be a much more interesting one.

Sarah Palin is, basically, a whore and the only reason that she does what she does is because she could never make as much giving blowjobs at the RNC’s dog and pony shows. For those who decry my sexism, meh.

The current champion of babbling like a loon for money is Glenn Beck. It can be extraordinarily profitable, netting him ca. $100 million in a few years.

You do have to keep raising the level of looniness though. After a while calling 9/11 an inside job or Obama an atheist, Moslem Reptilian-human hybrid shapeshifting commie gets boring.

Palin is going to have to up the looniness. She has already implied that the new Pope is a closet commie. I doubt if she can do it though, since it takes minimal talent. But she doesn’t have to. She has ghost writers for that.

@9 “I’ve found most bigots don’t mind advertising the fact that they are biogts and are in fact rather proud of it. ”

Might be some confirmation bias going there, since the bigots who know enough to keep their trap shut don’t show up in your sample. And do you extend the appropriate support to those who say “I know I have some lingering bigotry about me, but I do my best to shut it down.” We are, after all, products/prisoners of our era/culture to varying degrees.

I have that Daily Show clip telling me, “We can just ignore her!” pop into my head whenever Sarah Palin gets mentioned. But I read anyway. I must be a masochist. The people who interpret her business as usual as some kind of buildup to run for any office are facepalm worthy, too. She’s just one more recursively famous celebrity.

As for the sexism dispute: Intention isn’t magic. Even if you don’t intend to focus on Palin’s gender, language that metaphorically depicts her as a prostitute or in search of sexual activity comes across as sexist.

Ed is correct, but the main reason is that she is not well-liked. Even Republicans don’t like her very much. She has a small and devoted fan base from whom she draws most of her money, and the rest is from people who gawk at and are paid to comment on her. The whole “famous for being famous” phenomenon works well for her, and it guarantees her sales and exposure that her popularity alone can’t support.

But she won’t be running for president because she would lose badly in a Republican primary to say nothing of a general election, and that would disillusion her small but fanatical supporters and tarnish the shiny object that the chattering class is so fond of playing with. And as soon as she becomes old news, her gravy train disappears.

“As for the sexism dispute: Intention isn’t magic. Even if you don’t intend to focus on Palin’s gender, language that metaphorically depicts her as a prostitute or in search of sexual activity comes across as sexist.”

I am well aware of the intentional or unintentional argument.

I was also fully aware of the fact that “whore” is also pretty much gender neutral these days–it is absolutely gender neutral in colloquial usage.

This:

“whore (hôr, hr)
n.
1. A prostitute.

2. A person considered sexually promiscuous.

3. A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.

intr.v. whored, whor·ing, whores
1. To associate or have sexual relations with prostitutes or a prostitute.

“Word History: Derivatives of Indo-European roots have often acquired starkly contrasting meanings. A prime example is the case of the root *k-, “to like, desire.” From it was derived a stem *kro-, from which came the prehistoric Common Germanic word *hraz with the underlying meaning “one who desires” and the effective meaning “adulterer.” The feminine of this, *hrn-, became hre in Old English, the ancestor of Modern English whore. In another branch of the Indo-European family, the same stem *kro- produced the Latin word crus, “dear.” This word has several derivatives borrowed into English, including caress, cherish, and charity, in Christian doctrine the highest form of love and the greatest of the theological virtues. · Another derivative of the root *k- in Indo-European was *kmo-, a descendant of which is the Sanskrit word for “love,” kma, appearing in the name of the most famous treatise on love and lovemaking, the Kamasutra”

Coarse epithets are disliked by many and considered to be a sign of a lack of mental acuity or of someone lacking a decent vocabulary. I have numerous gaps in my education but I possess an excellent vocabulary and above average intelligence as measured by numerous tests.

Sarah Palin has numerous gaps in her education, a documented lack of both intellectual ability and curiosity and no evident skills in writing or competence in the use of the English language. She is also a whore.

Plesae don’t compare my old hound dog Wylie to Sarah Palin; it upsets him and flatters her too much. Wylie is not lazy – he’s just old and athritic but will till chase the neighbor’s cat. Can’t see Palin bestirring herself to chase anything especially the nomination. Hell she wouldn’t take the job if she got it by accalamation.